C Programming

INITIALIZING DATA VARIABLES AT DECLARATION TIME
Unlike PASCAL, in C variables may be initialized with a value when they are declared. Consider the following declaration, which declares an integer variable count which is initialized to 10.


        int  count = 10;

SIMPLE ASSIGNMENT OF VALUES TO VARIABLES
The = operator is used to assign values to data variables. Consider the following statement, which assigns the value 32 an integer variable count, and the letter A to the character variable letter


        count = 32;
        letter = 'A';

THE VALUE OF VARIABLES AT DECLARATION TIME
Lets examine what the default value a variable is assigned when its declared. To do this, lets consider the following program, which declares two variables, count which is an integer, and letter which is a character.

Neither variable is pre-initialized. The value of each variable is printed out using a printf() statement.


	#include <stdio.h>

	main()
	{
		int   count;
		char  letter;

		printf("Count = %d\n", count);
		printf("Letter = %c\n", letter);
	}


	Sample program output
	Count = 26494
	Letter = f

It can be seen from the sample output that the values which each of the variables take on at declaration time are no-zero. In C, this is common, and programmers must ensure that variables are assigned values before using them.

If the program was run again, the output could well have different values for each of the variables. We can never assume that variables declare in the manner above will take on a specific value.

Some compilers may issue warnings related to the use of variables, and Turbo C from Borland issues the following warning,


	possible use of 'count' before definition in function main

RADIX CHANGING
Data numbers may be expressed in any base by simply altering the modifier, e.g., decimal, octal, or hexadecimal. This is achieved by the letter which follows the % sign related to the printf argument.


	#include <stdio.h>

	main() /* Prints the same value in Decimal, Hex and Octal */
	{
		int   number = 100;

		printf("In decimal the number is %d\n", number);
		printf("In hex the number is %x\n", number);
		printf("In octal the number is %o\n", number);
		/* what about %X\n as an argument?  */
	}


	Sample program output
	In decimal the number is 100
	In hex the number is 64
	In octal the number is 144

Note how the variable number is initialized to zero at the time of its declaration.

DEFINING VARIABLES IN OCTAL AND HEXADECIMAL
Often, when writing systems programs, the programmer needs to use a different number base rather than the default decimal.

Integer constants can be defined in octal or hex by using the associated prefix, e.g., to define an integer as an octal constant use 0 (zero)


	int    sum = 0567;

To define an integer as a hex constant use 0x (zero followed by x or X)


	int    sum = 0x7ab4;
	int    flag = 0x7AB4;     /* Note upper or lowercase hex ok */